[WikiEN-l] issue with an admin refusing to allow me "right to vanish"

Thu Dec 21 16:50:50 UTC 2006

Sounds reasonable, but how do we make the distinction between
'indispensible' an 'of interest'? Should we leave a note on the page that an
admin is willing to retrieve info from deletion should be be needed?

Mgm

On 12/21/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>
> MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
> > It's the hidden from non-admins part that is a problem.
> > If you did any significant editing, the discussions on your talk page
> could
> > be of interest to other editors even after you leave. It could be tagged
> as
> > belonging to a left user, it can be protected from trolls, and it might
> even
> > be blankable, but it cannot be deleted.
>
> In general, I do not agree with this approach.  Allowing people to
> vanish, including deleting their user and user_talk pages, is often the
> best way to part company with dignity.  "Could be of interest" should
> not be the standard, I think, but rather "Is indispensable to the
> functioning of the encyclopedia."
>
> There can be exceptions, of course.  If a user repeatedly joins and
> deletes (perhaps sockpuppeting), causing a lot of disruptive demands to
> delete their userpage, we could just ignore it if that seemed like the
> best way to deal with it.
>
> But in general, I see no reason to have a general policy of keeping talk
> pages around that make someone who would like to leave us unhappy.
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